LoneWolf

You probably want to keep the defenses low enough that ordinary guns are a threat. The characters can have some resistant defense, but not enough to bounce bullets. DCV and combat luck should be the main defensive powers. This means you will probably need to scale back your attacks a bit. Unusual attacks are fine and should be encouraged. In a lot of ways this is going to resemble a high powered Fantasy Hero game more than a champions. Ranged martial arts and skill levels will probably be fairly common. Normal martial arts are probably also going to useful. Martial arts don’t need to be eastern; there are lots of western martial arts like boxing and wrestling.

Considering you can buy another battle star for 5 points, I don’t have a problem with purchasing fighters cheap. Star Hero is normally a heroic game so characters usually purchase equipment including ships with cash instead of points. So, how you build a vehicle or base really does not matter that much. Missile bought as vehicles are usually sophisticated devices with lots of capabilities that go way beyond fire and forget. They often have computer guidance systems that are able to evade anti-aircraft defenses. They can often navigate to avoid defenses or to get a better approach to strike. There is no reason you cannot have both in your campaign. We have both in real life now. Often the purpose of writing up a device as a vehicle to define how they work in the game.

I never had a problem with players trying to get a bunch of low-cost powers. When you do that you don’t save as much. In general a bunch of low cost powers are not as effective as a few high-cost powers. Since every power has to be twice the active cost of the EC a low point EC does not save you many points. Unless your GM is allowing multiple EC on the same character it is better to have a higher cost EC and buy the low cost powers outside the EC. For example, if you put the 3 powers you listed into a 5-point EC instead of a 25 Your EC would cost 3 point and your 3 50-point powers would cost 35 point instead of 17. That means you are paying an extra 40 points for the same powers. You could then put in a bunch of 10-point powers for 3 points each, but all that does is increase the final cost of the character. You would need to have 13 10-point powers to make equal out and even then, you would be spending an extra 39 points. At that point each point you spend is getting you 1.7 points. With the 25-point EC each point is getting you 2.2 points. Throw in a few more 50-point powers and the saving are even higher. If your 25-point EC has 6 powers each point gets you 2.5 points. One of the reasons that special powers are not allowed in an EC is that for the most part they are usually dirt cheap. If a GM is too permissive with what they allow in it can allow a character to get all of the special defenses dirt cheap. This is the easiest way to abuse an EC and why a good GM will be careful what they allow in it.

The flight is fine as it normally costs END. Not sure what Umberkeneseis is, if it is telekinesis it should be fine. If I remember correctly Regeneration was a special power in 4th edition and does not cost END so cannot normally be put in an EC. Check with you GM on that, if the GM is ok with it you can put it in. Each of the slots also get the limitation as well or you cannot put it on the EC. So the cost of the EC and all slots are 17. If the regeneration and flight works in bright light, you cannot put that limitation on the EC and the cost would be 25 for the EC and slots without the limitation.

I think you are confusing a VPP for an elemental control. With an elemental control there is no pool. You pay a set amount for the EC and all powers in the EC subtract that cost from the active cost before applying any limitations. All powers in the EC have to be at least twice the cost of the EC. For example if you have a 25 point EC all power in the EC have to be at least 50 active points. You subtract 25 (the cost of the EC) from all powers in the EC and then apply limitations. If every slot in the EC has a limitation you can apply that limitation to the cost of the EC. So if all his powers have the -1/2 limitation not working in bright light that can be applied to the cost EC as well as the powers. In the above case the EC would cost 17 but still deduct 25 points from it. Not all powers can be put in an EC. In 4th edition you cannot put special powers in an EC. I think all powers also have to cost END to be put in an EC, but that might be for 5th edition.

You are kind of doing it backwards. Instead of figuring out what the character learned you are focusing on XP. That does not work well because some things that take a long time to learn are dirt cheap, but other things that can be learned quickly cost a lot of points. For example, it cost 5 points or less for a 14 or less knowledge skill which would be the equivalent to a PHD. For the same cost I can add a martial kick (offense strike) to my martial art. It does not take 8 years for an experienced martial artist to learn each maneuver. The XP system is designed to keep allow players to grow their character at about the same rate. It is designed as a player reward system, not as a system to logically advance NPCs. You get rewarded for things like role playing and being clever. It is an artificial game construction to keep the players interested in the game. Instead of figuring out a point total and spending it figure out what the character has been studying and give them the appropriate skill/power. For the most part unless a character has a radiation accident or were not fully grown when the campaign started they don’t change much physically. So, what XP is really representing is what the character learned. Don’t worry about how much it costs just give the NPC what it should have gained. The answer to your question is there is no set rate for how much XP to give per year.

Since it is fantasy why not have the ornithopter have folding wings. Carry it like a life boat and lower into the water. It uses oars to gain some distance from the ship and then takes off when it is fare enough away.

When writing up an NPC I don’t bother about points. I give the character what I want them to including the disadvantages they should have and give a NPC bonus to cover the rest. Points for PC are more to balance them against each other than anything else. When writing up an NPC look at what you are giving them. If it is too powerful tone it down, if it is not powerful enough boost it up. The thing to keep in mind about the Hero System is that unlike a lot of other systems the characters effectiveness does not go up as rapidly as the points go up. I can have a 500 point character whose attacks are not any more powerful than a 350 point character. I can also have a 250 point character whose attacks are more powerful than a 500 point character. Some things are also more expensive than others. It takes very few points to build a world class scientist, but a competent martial artist is more expensive. The growth rate of characters in the Hero System is a lot different than other systems. In most other systems the characters start out incredibly weak and become incredibly powerful by the end of the game. In the Hero System characters start out powerful and usually become more versatile. They do grow in power, but not as much as other systems. This means you don’t need to increase the power of their foes. In a system like Pathfinder the foes the character fights at the beginning of the campaign are no match for the character at high level. In the Hero System that is often not the case. A 4d6 KA is dangerous to most characters, especially prior to 6th edition.

Set the combat luck to add to Secondary Value and the rest of the defenses to add to the Primary Value. This might not show the combat luck by itself, but does show the defenses without the combat luck first and then the total defenses including the combat luck. To me this is better because I don’t have to calculate the totals everything is there in front of me.

I am not a big fan of trying to convert things from one system to another because it never seems to work out well. Some things that are low level in D&D end up being very expensive, while some higher-level things are dirt cheap. Other game systems do things differently than Hero System does and trying to convert those almost always creates problems. If you are going to try and convert something don’t look at the game mechanics of the other systems, look at the special effects. Prismatic Spray is basically converting Prismatic Sphere into a ray. The original spell was designed as a defensive spell that required you to cast multiple different spells in a specific sequence to overcome Each layer caused progressively worse damage if you tried to push through. That is why the graduated damage and effects. I would really recommend against doing it like this. If you want an attack that does different types of damage that would be fairly easy, but I would avoid using different types of powers. Prismatic Spray has what would be 3 blasts, a drain, a transformation, a mind control (or mental transformation) and a movement useable as an attack. The last one is a stop sign power that is completely abusive and that most GMs would not allow. What I would do would be to have the power just deal damage of different types. Buy it as a blast and use a partially limited power to change the special effect. Buy variable special effect on the blast and apply the -1 no conscious control on the variable special effect. When you hit the target, you always do the same damage, but roll a die to see what the special effect is. This creates a spell similar to Prismatic Spray that works well in the hero system. Trying to convert the actual spells is going to be a nightmare because the differing damage. The way hero works the either the lower damage rays are useless or the higher damage spells are overpowered. If you stay with the different combat effects, they have to be brought separately or put into a multipower. For the multipower to work the pool needs to be large enough to hold the active points of the most expensive power.

Unusual is not really a sense group, it is more of a collection of senses that don’t fit into any other group. The rules state you have to buy invisibility or darkness to each unusual sense separately. For that reason, I would not allow the unusual group to be defined as one of the sense groups an attack is visible to. By default, one of the sense groups is usually sight, the other is usually sound. If the special effect fits those can be changed but the GM should be looking over any changes to make sure they are not abusive. If the player wants to define an attack as being visible to a different sense group, they should have a good reason besides I want an invisible attack. The Hero System gives us great freedom to create anything we want, but to paraphrase Stan Lee, with great freedom comes great responsibility. I would have no problem with a character purchasing a partially invisible attack and defining the other sense group as Radio. My hearing aids can detect when a Microwave is turned on if I am close enough when they are on telephone mode. It does the same thing when any other device that is putting out a strong electrical field. They also pick up the broadcast of the museum audio. The Microwave gun would probably create a similar interference to radar and other radio-based senses.

I have no problem with a player or GM getting creative with their special effect, but it should have some consistency. If you want to say that electricity is making the blade sharper that is fine, but at that point the game effect is not electricity and the character who is vulnerable to electricity does not take extra damage and the effect no longer gets treated as electricity for the minor advantages and limitations to the power. What I would have a problem with is a player wanting to deal extra physical damage and still have the attack be treated as an electrical attack. Special effect should mean something and should be clearly defined. This has nothing to do with science except for on a very basic level. Even a medieval peasant understood that lighting leaves burns and a sword leaves cuts. Unless the GM is changing the rules so much that someone looking at a deep cut wonders if they were struck by lightning having an electrical attack do physical damage is not appropriate. If the GM is making those type of changes, it should be to all electrical attacks. Even in a Fantasy setting the world should still be about the same as ours until magic gets involved. People are still subject to gravity and don’t just float around without using magic. When things act differently, they are clearly magic. In the Sword of Truth series, they had Wizards Fire which was able to burn through any substance. To someone who did not know better it looked like ordinary fire, but someone who understood fire was able to recognize it. Richard was even able to identify an attack was Wizards Fire when he did not witness the attack by examining the surroundings. If you are going to have magic alter the way something works, it should be clearly magic at least to the people who understand magic.

AD&D did have a chart for adjusting your chance to hit based on the armor type, but I don’t think anyone ever used it. Hero does penalize splitting your attack but in all honesty it should. In other modern game systems this also occurs, but is not a pronounced. In Pathfinder the fire damage from a flaming sword will be reduced by fire resistance, but In Pathfinder not every creature has energy resistance. Personally I avoid trying to duplicate something from another game system because each game system has its own peculiarities that do not translate well to other systems. If I want to play that type of game, I will play Pathfinder instead of Hero.

In a Fantasy campaign you don’t have to be fully scientific but some basic ideas should still be there. Lightning should still act light lightning and fire should still act like fire. These are common effects that everyone understands and having them behave in predictable manner helps build a common reference point for the players. . If you are going to give a lighting power minor benefits based on special effect it should also have the limitations of the special effect. With magic there are plenty of special effects that can achieve the results you want without totally changing how known properties of phenomena. I could see a necromantic field causing the wound to be more severe, or a magic field enhancing the edge like Doc suggested. I just don’t see electricity doing that. It might even look similar to electricity, but would in fact be something else.

Why are you even trying to make all the damage from one source? It seems to me that something like what you described would split the damage and apply it separately. By combining the damage what you are doing is simulating other game systems instead of reality. Many game systems use the mechanism that a hit means you actually got through the defenders defenses so do at least some damage. That is not and never has been how the Hero System works. DCV is not AC, just because you hit something does not mean you are going to actually deal any damage. The defender had to pay for separate physical and energy defense so bypassing one to do more damage is kind of unfair. How does a crackling electrical field help a sword cut through metal? If you want to make sure the electrical field does some damage make it a penetrating KA. In all honesty I am not seeing the reason to buy it as a KA other than to make sure it does body. That seems to go against the philosophy of the Hero System of defining the special effect and then figuring out the game mechanics. Based on the description I would make this a NND blast and not worry about body. In a Fantasy Hero game even a few dice of NND will be very effective. As written the sword would apply the damage separately vs the characters physical and energy defense.

I would probably do the electrical damage as a AVLD instead of a normal attack. Metal armor or being though should not stop being electrocuted. Probably use a normal attack instead of a killing attack, but you could use a killing attack that does BODY, but it will be incredibly expensive.

Unless you are continuing to use the flight after you land you don’t need the no turn mode. You simply decelerate to end up with 0 velocity when you land. Using no turn mode ends up more a bouncing ball that a fall. If you are flying up don’t forget that every m up uses 2m of flight. The rules for gravity state you can add 1m of velocity for every 1m of your flight when moving down. This means that to achieve critical velocity (60m) you only need to purchase 30m. Buying it this way means the character is not actually falling he is using his own movement with the special effect that he is falling. This allows him to use normal movement rules including acceleration and deceleration. So when he “falls” in game terms he is flying down. When he gets near the ground he decelerates so that he ends up with a velocity of 0. He does not need to worry about changing the vector or anything else because he simply moved his movement. By using gliding instead of flight cuts the cost down significantly and means that he does not have to pay any END for it. No non-combat makes sense because the character does not need it and will never use the non-combat move. Normal gliding would allow him a lot of horizontal movement so putting a limitation to restrict it also makes sense. That works out to be 11 points for 30m of gliding. If you want to have the character, use a breakfall roll simply add requires a skill roll which brings it down to 9 points.

It’s actually stated in the rules you don’t have to buy duplicate maneuvers even when they are from different styles. The example they gave was someone with both Kungfu and Karate not having to buy martial strike twice. I forget which book it was in or what edition.

Normally an attack is supposed to be visible to two sense groups. Most often it is sight and hearing groups. Some attacks may be visible to other sense groups. Taking invisible can be used to reduce this to a single sense group. I could see taking invisible powers on an attack that is only visible to an unusual sense group. For example a microwave gun that is visible to the radio sense group, but not sight. If the fact the attack is visible to that sense group, I could see allowing an obvious focus. In the case of the microwave gun someone with HRR or Radar would be able to tell the source of the attack was the focus. This of course assumes the sense is usable at range. This could be the case with the 70's blaster.

The defense of an NND is not a special effect it is a game mechanic. Special effects can have minor effects on how a power operates, but anything that is significant enough to be a game mechanic needs to be dealt with when the power is purchased. If the special effect is something represented by an advantage or limitation that needs to be taken and defined when the power is created. If you made a mistake in how the power should be built that can be adjust at an appropriate time. Personally I would not allow a power to be adjusted during a game session, especially during combat. To me that is not proper game etiquette. Personally I think having both immunity to cold and heat makes more sense for an NND. Any direct blast with a temperature high enough to ignore characters normal ED should be doing body. An NND with the defense of immunity to heat should be more indirect like raising the temperature around the character or even directly raising the body heat of the target. If one blast heats up the character but is not enough to actually damage him and the second blast cools him down to a much lower temperature that also cannot damage him, that seems more reasonable.

Immunity to heat and cold is only two points per immunity. I don’t know about other games but in games I play in having both is actually fairly common. A lot of power suits have both as do other characters that can survive in different environments. Back in earlier edition when full life support cost 30 point there were a couple NND’s that had full life support as the defense. Most insulation protects equally vs heat and cold. I would allow having both as a defense.

With flight and gliding you are using it in place of the normal falling movement. This allows you to control how you fall. By putting a few limitations on the power allows it to function the way it should. The disadvantage of this is that it requires you to make a full move. Any character with flight can fly straight down and be in total control of their movement. The rules for leaping do not say you have to double your vertical leap. You can subtract your vertical leap from the velocity. Since your vertical leap is half your horizontal leap you have to double your horizontal leap. This also requires the character to make a move. Gliding is probably the cheapest way to do this. If the character has leaping already, they can use that to reduce the velocity of a fall. I would not buy this as leaping but can see a character with some leaping using this to reduce falls of lesser distance. The fall in the clip of the original post is only from a 4-story building. A lot of characters with leaping have enough leap to handle that high of a fall. The 15m of flight is not going to be enough to counter your existing velocity. The turn mode does not cancel existing velocity.

OR is not AND, the way you have it defined either immunity will stop it. Since many characters have immunity to both having both of them could be a valid defense. The damage may be caused by the shock of the rapid shift from one temperature to another instead of being actually damaged by either temperature.

Simply buy it as a detect “bugging device”. Make it part of the Radio sense group so it gets sense and range for free. Add on increased arc of perception (360 degrees), penetrative, and telescopic (+8). That works out to be 22 points. You may need to adjust the telescopic or add megascale depending on how far the bug transmits. Add appropriate limitations such as focus based on how you want it to work. If you are firing it from a gun buy the attack for the gun and define the target to be those shot with the gun.

Looking up unified power the book states it can be applied to any game element including slots in a framework. Can it also be applied to the framework itself,more specifically a multipower? If so what happens when a power in the pool is drained? Does it have a double effect since it is draining both the pool and the slot?